Toronto Raptors: The most difficult front-office to play for in the NBA

The Toronto Raptors hosted the Detroit Pistons a couple of days ago. Yes, the very same Pistons franchise that gave refuge to Dwane Casey and appointed him Head Coach after the Raptors brutally fired him.

"It will be different being on that side of the bench but I would be disingenuous to say it's not going to feel funny," Casey said in a phone interview.

The arena was buzzing from the tip-off. Dwane Casey's men came back and stunned his former team with a buzzer beater, and stole a 106-104 victory, much to the satisfaction of the man who was fired so abruptly not even a year ago.

During his time in the North, the former 1978 NCAA champion had taken the Toronto Raptors to heights unheard of. He had led the team to its first Eastern Conference Finals appearance. He was elected the All-Star Head Coach(first in Raptors' history) and won Coach of the Year award for is contribution during the 2017-18 season. The Raptors finished 1st in the Eastern Conference last season hosting a 59-23 win-loss record. But what followed their East Semis loss sent shockwaves through the league.

When LeBron's Cavaliers swept the Raptors as though they were nothing, Masai Ujiri had had enough. He fired the best coach in the NBA, sending out a message that they are not playing around. Everybody in Toronto loved Casey. They even played a tribute video during his return thanking him for his immense contribution.

On a related note, DeMar DeRozan had repeatedly expressed his desire to retire as a Raptor and some day, have his jersey up in the rafters. But claims of disloyalty echoed through the most-hated front office again when they traded DeRozan to the Spurs for superstar forward Kawhi Leonard in July. Spurs sent Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green to Raptors for DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl & a first round pick.

Though this trade made sense for both the teams, DeRozan was caught off-guard by such a life-changing blow. When DeMar signed a five-year, $139 million deal with the Toronto Raptors in July 2016, nobody had foreseen such a seismic shift in just 2 years.

Again, this just goes to show how ruthless and radical the Raptors President(Alternate NBA Governor) can be at times.

The present-day Raptors are seated comfortably at the top with a 0.750 win percentage and are top contenders to lead the East again this year, with Kawhi by their side. But we know they are capable of that already.

What we don't know is will they be able to run past Celtics & make it to the NBA Finals this year. Because a lot of blood has been shed, tons worth of relationships put to waste and players' legacies turned around, just to clinch that ever-elusive NBA Finals spot in the North.